With the onset of the nuclear age, there has been one question that has not been adequately resolved. In essence, what to do with the waste that builds up over time from the use of nuclear material. Though this issue has been around for more than sixty years, there is still no consensus on how to dispose of nuclear waste. To date, the majority of high level nuclear and other radioactive waste that has no useful components that could be reprocessed is expected to be stored as vitrified (glassified) material inside canisters or other such containers. This is expected to occur after reprocessing of spent reactor fuel, or after pre-treatment of wastes from nuclear weapons production, to remove both non-radioactive substances and radioactive ones which can be re-used as fissionable components of new reactor fuel.
Such vitrified radioactive waste is expected to be formed into large solid cylinders or containers which can probably be any length and diameter, depending on the specifications for their manufacture. Before storage or disposal in a permanent waste site these large containers will be clad with corrosion resistant metal so that subsequent unintended exposure to water, or other possibly corrosive liquids or gases, should not breach their integrity
Cylinders or containers with unreprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods are now expected to be placed for final storage or disposal in tightly regulated, large underground land disposal sites that are usually within five hundred to a few thousand feet from the surface and may be located close to a water table. Specific details regarding storage locations, environmental barriers, site access controls and ongoing site monitoring for possible waste leakage appear to vary greatly among countries which already have radioactive waste storage or disposal programs. In fact, even in the United States, traces of stored radioactive material have been identified in water supplies located at or near such waste disposal sites.
To the extent that efforts at consolidated or manageable site disposal have occurred, these have generally failed to yield an answer. For instance, in the United States, the federal government spent billions of dollars building a waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain. Despite this investment, the site continues not to be used and a consensus continues to build that will likely result in the Yucca Mountain site not being the planned central repository. Indeed, a coordinated nuclear waste disposal plan is yet to be put forth.
As a result, there is a need for a waste disposal system that provides for the storage of radioactive waste products in a manner that is safe and monitorable and not likely to contaminate the surrounding environment, including, without limitation, water supplies used for personal or other purposes.